My Tangents

Blog for discussing English, writing, and whatever else comes to mind.

[mytangents]

"Wait...who am I talking to again?"

I enjoy group projects for work (with other departments), school, and whatever else because in most cases I get paired up with people I'd have never have connected with in the first place. The psychologist in me likes to observe how the group works together and who takes the lead and why.

In a recent experience I was assigned to a group with two other people and it was and is interesting to see how our group communicates during our periodic check ins. I was "voluntold" to be the leader....which is ok, because I was planning on it anyway! As we all tried to decide on a topic it was a bit of a challenge to have us agree on one thing. Some wanted something light and upbeat, others wanted something political and opinionated. We settled on something a pretty heavy topic in my estimation.

I have a hard time remembering names and calling the 2 individuals the right name was hard for whatever reason....and I proceeded to mispronounce on of their names too!.....Mispronounce is an understatement. Slayed, destroyed, maimed their name is a more accurate description.

[mytangents]

"Get back to work!"

I had originally thought I'd focus my research on why every holiday should be on a Monday or Friday. I had looked into why some federal holidays were on Monday's and wrote a little about it a few posts ago. Thinking more about this and doing more reading, I thought it would be more intriguing (and less of a snooze fest....for me I mean!) if I addressed the ideas behind a 4 day work week. What are the positives and negatives? What industries could sustain it and what ones could not?

Has COVID made us more inclined to want to work less? As I'm researching, reading, and thinking about this generally, I can honestly say I can see both sides of why it's important to keep a 40 hour workweek, and why it's not! I imagine that as I'm writing the final draft I will have made a decision.....also it's a circumstantial issue because a month ago I was dead set on 4 day workweeks, but since then I was laid off from my primary job and now I think we should be working 40 hours a week!...projection anyone?

[mytangents]

Read the room, dawg!

While reading Segal's essay titled, "The Dog Ate My Tablet and Other Tales of Woe, I came to the conclusion that this essay actually wasn't as funny as I first thought when I read it. I came to this conclusion when I saw that this essay was written for college professors and administrators.

We all know that students from grades 1 to grades 42 will make up excuses to why they couldn't turn in their assignments on time. For whatever reason our poor dogs have taken the brunt of these excuses! I've never seen any dog ever eat paper much less a notebook so whomever came up with this excuse 100 years ago was not thinking clearly.

I do believe that Segal was trying to make a point and was probably frustrated by the excuses and lack of dedication to her classes that some of her students showed over the past several years. I get it, but I can almost see her rolling her eyes as she's writing this essay. I don't know if her making light of heavy subjects like death of loved ones and suicide is the exact look she was looking for in this essay. As a writer I would have to really be careful about what I write about, much less joke about, when writing an essay. Also, I'd want to be aware of who is going to read it and who will publish it.

Again, I get why she wrote it and the intentions, but I'd have just stuck to the technical issues of why students aren't handing in their assignments on time.

On an unrelated subject I hope this blog gets posted ok!.....my wifi has been real spotty lately.....

Sources cited:

Segal, Carolyn. The Dog Ate My Tablet and Other Tales of Woe. The Chronicle Review. Aug 11, 2000

[mytangents]

Monday Holidays

I really think every holiday should be on Mondays. I think this because how annoying is it when Christmas is on a Thursday? You know that the day after on Friday, everyone is pretty much checked out if they already didn't take the day off. Productivity has to be so low that the company might as well be closed.

Holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day are always on a Monday due to the Uniform Holiday Act that was passed in 1968 and revised in in 1971. We would think that because of this Act that all federal holidays should be on Monday! Well.....that would put a different spin on the 4th of July for this year since it's on a Tuesday....."what are you doing for the 3rd?" doesn't seem to have the same ring does it?

I can already hear those us of who work in HR or the Personnel departments reading my blog. "Kids these days don't want to work! Back in my day....". The fear of moving holidays to Monday is that we may move to a 4 day workweek, heaven forbid. Some experiments and control groups have been conducted the last several years with mixed results from both employers and employees. I still say that if we want to increase productivity we look to see how 4 day workweeks and Monday holidays become the new way. The Industrial Age has gone the way of the dodo!....as some people would call me a "dodo" for wanting this new workweek.

Sources cited:

Timsit, Annabelle. "A 4-day Workweek pilot was so Successful Most Firms Say They Won't Go Back". The Washington Post, February 21, 2023

Ross, Ashley. " This is Why Memorial Day is a Three Day Weekend". Time May 24, 2019

Kalser, Laurel. "Maryland Bill Would Incentivize 4-Day Workweeks". February 01, 2023

[mytangents]

"Don't do.....anything!"

The author in this writing, Jamaica Kincaid, whose work I will comment about is a Harvard professor who teaches about African Studies, equal rights, social commentary, and things of that nature. In her writing called, "Girl", Kincaid paints a picture of how life was for a young Black women living in slavery in the 1830's in British Antigua. The author seems to be speaking to everyone but mostly to the young women of today.

The antagonist or speaker in this story is assumedly the young women's mother or caretaker of some sort. We read of the demands she has for the girl, from the exact way to sweeping a floor, ironing her fathers pants to how to smile, where to eat fruit, and how to sing at church....and I thought that boss I used to have was a micromanager! This is like the Law of Moses on steroids.

This speaker must have been brought up in the same manner or had some sort of terrible incidents to happen to her because she's clearly projecting. We could assume that she is just wanting to protect her daughter, but it does seem pretty harsh. I'm not a female but I'd have to say I don't think a girl should be raised in this manner. She'll be afraid of everything and anyone and that is not the greatest outcome!

This particular essay mentions the social implications of young ladies who were in slavery in the mid 1800's. If the girl didn't act a certain way, she'd be construed a certain way. The girls mother brings up the fact that the girl would be looked at as a slut if she doesn't perform these items in exactness. The way one could read this work is that there was such a fear for girls in slavery to end up in a bad way, so if they were raised properly they'd survive by staying out of the limelight. The story sheds light on the unequal balance of gender roles that were experienced in those days and probably presently. The young women is instructed on how to accurately take care and look after the male of the household. This was a pretty poignant portrayal of what times were like, but worse, how times are now and how in some parts of the world, times haven't changed that much.

[mytangents]

Evade! Evade!

During the late 90's I found myself in Ohio....the west side of Dayton no less. I had been called to serve a religious mission for the faith I had belonged to. As a young man who came from a small town I hadn't developed any "street smarts" at the time, so it was not uncommon for me and my religious companion(s) to ride our bikes through very rough stretches of neighborhoods to deliver our message of hope and peace.

On one dark night we found ourselves lost, on foot, and didn't know where north or south was. The trusty mountains of the Wasatch Front which stood as natural compasses were some 1,700 miles away....a little out of our view point! Cell phones, Siri, Google maps, and Uber were but 15 years from being developed; much like my street smarts. To make matters worse, we were aware of a man who had been following us for some time now. He was black which added to our fears, just because neither of us had really known a black person till we arrived in Ohio. Up to this point we had never had a negative experience with anyone from any races in this area, but the media sometimes will portray certain ethnicities a certain way.

He seemed like he was holding something as he followed us. We could only conclude it had to be a weapon! We quickly decided on what we should do. My companion suggested we had to "evade! evade!". Seemed like a smart thing to do...unless he had a gun. At that instant I remembered the last book I had read before leaving home. The inspiring work of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War". "Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of an enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second to the field and has to hasten to battle, will arrive exhausted." (Tzu) In my limited view of how to handle conflict, and a probably equally limited view in understanding this passage, I decided this was our battle ground and we weren't going to run. I expected maybe a power greater than ours would intercede.

To our relief as he approached us, he gave me a religious text that I had left at his house only a few minutes earlier! He didn't want it and was trying to get our attention but with our pre conceived notions of who he was, with the addition to the dark night, gave way to a more sinister idea of what is intentions were. Guess I should brush up on my Sun Tzu!

After reading the Staples article I'd have treated this situation much differently because I'd have thought through different scenarios and not just come to one conclusion.

Works cited:

Tzu, Sun. "The Art of War" 1910, reprinted 2003, pp. 27, article #1

[mytangents]

Soweto is sweeto!

What's better than bungie jumping?....bungie jumping off of the Orlando Towers in Soweto. The irony of this activity is that from afar you'd think these two towers are nuclear towers. As you get closer you notice the artwork and graffiti on these towers that tell a story of this town. A town that's overcame many struggles to develop into the bustling hub of culture, politics, and business that it is presently.

The towers seem to stand as sentinels as it's citizens and visitors frequent the Rosa Parks Library in their search for history, particularly Black history and civil rights. The Soweto Theatre is where you'd go to catch an upscale theatrical or musical production, mostly about the political history of Soweto. The theater's architecture includes sails....I'd like to think it represents the sails of The Flyer by the Wright brothers as they flew into history, a striking parallel to Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela; both revered in this community.

Finally, the local cuisine is where you'd want to end up, or start. And don't forget the beer!

We could imagine again that symbolically as the visitors bungie from those two imposing towers that they're conquering their fears just as the past anti-Apartheid pioneers did in the 1990's.

Works Cited:

Claassens, Carina. "10 Top Things to See and Do in Soweto" Culture Trip 19 May 2020

https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/10-top-things-to-see-and-do-in-soweto/

[mytangents]

Was I dreaming??

It was about 330 or so if I remember right and I was up getting a snack. This time of morning it wasn't uncommon to hear the bus picking up or dropping off people; probably either dropping them off from their graveyard shift or picking them up for an early morning shift is what I always figured. This time I could have sworn I heard a scream? I opened the window and saw a man I assume harassing a women. With it being this time of night I had guessed the date was not ending how he hoped or it was just two couples fighting. I was annoyed because I wanted to go back to bed so I yelled. "Let that girl alone!" The man looked at me and walked off and the girl got up. "Kids these days" I muttered as I turned off the light and got back to bed. The next morning the neighborhood was abuzz about a killer who was in the area the night before and had murdered a young women..."was that the same women as I had seen?" I asked myself? It couldn't have been. I was probably dreaming that I actually saw part of the incident and that I could have stopped a homicide. It's not like me to be this irresponsible so I chalked it up to I had probably imagined it and that those downstairs neighbors who refused to call the police were the ones responsible!....I no longer get up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack.

[mytangents]

What is the writing process?

When I start to write, in a journal, a shopping list, or creating programs and SOP's at work, I always start with a plan in mind. I'm goal oriented so I like to have purpose of why I'm writing...which is why I don't read SciFi books!....I don't get the vision! Ha Ha.

As I'm writing an SOP for example, the flow of the writing is pretty par for the course since procedures are pretty well set in stone. I've found that when I write an SOP, there isn't much use for imagination since again, procedures are to be by the book. It's almost as if I have to make the procedures less boring as I'm writing them down.

For a journal entry or a brainstorming session notes I have more latitude. Even though I have a goal or a purpose in mind, I'm not bound by the restraints of an SOP. What I've found that works best as I'm writing in my journal is that I start from the first of the week and work my way to the present day. I usually write in my journal on Sunday about the previous week. While the events I write about don't change, I'm cognizant of whomever will read my entries that they'll want to not get too bored about my mundane activities. So I'll be mindful to use adjectives to keep the reader engaged. I have found that it's tempting to add to my experiences to make them more exciting than they really were. I imagine that's because I get further away from the event my memory tends to make a mundane event even more exciting.

Contrasting from a SOP and and journal entry, the ending of these writings are different. An SOP ends with the goal in mind or the outcome and the reader can follow the flowchart of procedures that direct them to the end goal. With a journal entry there really is not and end as I (the writer) assumes that my story will pick back up when I journal again.

[mytangents]

Let's Go!

Finally able to get this blogging thing going!

I'm looking forward to writing about my college courses, especially English 1010. As the name of my blog, MyTangents, states, I hope to talk about most anything under the sun and am looking forward to seeing the comments and posts that come from my posts in the future!